1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to a multimedia TV broadcasting system and, more specifically, to a method of and a system for displaying a sophisticated electronic program guide by using structured templates transmitted from a center equipment and to a subscriber terminal incorporating such a method or program.
2. Description of the Prior Art
What we call xe2x80x9ca multimedia broadcasting systemxe2x80x9d is a broadcasting system in which each of the broadcast programs comprises at least one video, at least one audio and/or text data. Among such multimedia broadcasting system, there are digital TV broadcasting systems according to standards, known as MPEG-2 (Moving Picture Experts Groupxe2x80x94phase 2), DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting), etc. and analog TV systems such as a multiplexed analog component (MAC) TV system. Generally, such a multimedia broadcasting system tends to provide an increased number of channels, making it difficult for a subscriber to select a program to watch or to record. For this, multimedia broadcasting systems usually broadcast EPG (Electronic Program Guide) data as well as program data. This permits the user to display a program guide on the display screen of a user""s terminal, if it is a TV set, or of a TV set connected with a set-top terminal and to select a desired one from the displayed program guide.
Various techniques of displaying a program guide have been devised so far.
For example, Japanese unexamined patent publication No. Hei8-140003 (1996) discloses a system that displays a menu of categories of programs on a display screen permitting the user to select a desired category and displays a program guide for programs in a category selected by the user.
Japanese unexamined patent publication No. Hei9-37167 (1997) discloses a device and method for controlling electronic program guide display. In this device, the user can select one of the standard or wide aspect ratios. Once an aspect ratio is selected, the device thereafter changes an arrangement of sample images in a program guide according to the selected aspect ratio.
In conventional terminals, program guides are displayed by a program guide-displaying program stored in the terminal. Accordingly, the formats of the displayed program guide are limited only to those supported by the program-displaying program.
It is difficult for the user to select desired program(s) from the displayed program guide in a form of a table of program cells which table has a plurality of channels listed in a first dimension and time listed in a second dimension because all the program cells in the table are uniformly displayed regardless of user""s preference.
Since conventional terminals display program guides in the same way regardless of the size of the display screen, if the screen size is smaller than a certain size, characters of the displayed program guide are reduced too small in size to read.
The present invention is directed to solving these and other problems and disadvantages of the prior art.
According to one aspect of the invention, a set of hierarchical text templates broadcast from a broadcast station for use in displaying a program guide is provided. Program information is also broadcast from the broadcast station. The set of templates includes a plurality of frame templates; channel name templates of different types into which display manners of possible channels are classified, each channel name template being for displaying a channel name display section; and program templates for each displaying a program information for a single program, each program template being associated with one of categories into which possible programs are classified. The frame templates may include special frame templates, each being suited for a condition in which the special frame template is to be used. Each of the special frame templates includes a description of the condition.
Preferably, the set of templates include at least one intermediate template for describing a local layout of the program guide. Each intermediate template is embedded in one of the frame templates.
The intermediate templates preferably include a time-axis template for describing a section where hours specified by arguments passed from the one of the frame templates are displayed and a channel guide template for describing a section where program information for at least one channel specified by channel, channel count arguments and a plurality of hours specified by start and end time arguments is displayed in a table form.
Preferably, the frame templates further include a single-channel frame template for describing an overall layout of a single-channel program guide and a table-form frame template for describing an overall layout of a table-form program guide.
Preferably, the frame templates further include a category-form frame template for describing an overall layout of a program guide for programs in a category specified by a category argument supplied from external.
The set of templates further include a program ID template for displaying a channel name, a start time and an end time of a program. The program ID template is embedded in pairs with one of the program templates in the category-form frame template.
In one embodiment, the above-described templates are broadcast from the broadcasting station. However, the templates may be distributed stored in a IC card.
According to further aspect of the invention, a television subscriber system capable of displaying a program guide by using a set of hierarchical templates broadcast from a broadcasting station is provided. The set includes a plurality of frame templates and component templates to be embedded in the frame templates. The television subscriber system comprises software. The software includes means for permitting a user to issue a program guide request while viewing a program of a channel; means for determining a form of program guide in response to the program guide request; means, responsive to the determination, for selecting one of the frame templates which one is suitable to the form; means for generating a text describing the program guide of the form by embedding necessary one(s) of the component templates in the selected frame template while substituting variables of the selected and necessary templates with data which are determined by display conditions and obtained from program information broadcast from the broadcasting station; and means for executing the text to display program guide.